Method of making casings for sausages or other meat products



D86. 5, 1939. GOODMAN 2,181,887

METHOD OF" MAKING CASINGS FOR SAUSAGES OR OTHER MEAT PRODUCTS Original Filed May 23, 1935 INVENTOR Zea Q faoamd/r.

ATTORNEY Patented Dec. 5, 1939 v PATENT o-FFfcE METHOD OF MAKING CASINGS FOR SAU- $AGES OR OTHER MEAT PRODUCTS Leo A. Goodman, Brooklyn, N. Y., assignor of one-half to Marcleph & Co. Inc., New York, N. Y., a corporation of New York Original application May 23, 1935, Serial No.

Divided and this application February 16, 1938, Serial No. 190,748

Claims.

more particularly to the production of a materialfor making an artificial sausage casing, which material has properties simulating those of natural gut.

Casings for sausage meats now .commonly used are generally made of natural gut consisting of the intestines or entrails of hogs, ox, sheep, or other animals. Natural gut casings are objectionable in that they are subject to putrescence, with the accompanying fetid odor, and to numerous other disadvantages from a sanitary standpoint. The casings must be thoroughly cleaned and sterilized before using to destroy all bacteria. They must be carefully graded for size and quality. These factors all tend to increase the cost of natural gut'casings.

The present invention has for an object to provide a method of making an artificial casing having the desirable properties and qualities of a natural gut casing but which eliminates the undesirable characteristics thereof.

My inventionprovides a sanitary and relatively inexpensive substitute for the natural gut casings heretofore used. The invention lends itself particularly to the manufacture of large size casings, such as are known in the packing industry as hog bungs and used for easing liver sausages or the like, but it is to be understood that I do not limit myself in this respect.

Broadly considered, this invention consists in producing a finely porous, non-toxic, sanitary, elastic material derived from that class of substances in which are included natural or synthetic rubber or rubber-like materials. In the manufacture of sausage casings, this microporous elastic material may be used as such, or it may be applied or attached, in any suitable manner, to a fabric base of the character hereinafter described. The microporosity may in general be produced by uniformly distributing small amounts of compatible soluble bodies in dispersions of the rubber or rubber-like substances, and then washing out or removing those introduced soluble bodies with water. Other solvents Which are solvents for said bodies but are non-solvents for, or have only negligible solvent action on, the rubber or rubber-like substances may be used. The size of the pores or the degree of porosity may be controlled by varying the amount of, and

the manner of introducing the compatible bodies in the original colloidal dispersion.

The casing material of this invention is porous, preferably microporous, that is to say, it may have very small pores of substantially the order 5 of the pores of natural gut. A casing made of this material upon a fabric foundation has the necessary mechanical. strength to permit the sausage meat being forced into the casing in the usual sausage machine or stuifer, without danger 10 of tearing the casing. Furthermore, such material is of uniform strength throughout. This is an advantage over natural gut because in making natural gut casings, the fat is sometimes scraped off more closely at certain parts than at 15 others, thus leaving weakened areas or spots which are liable to burst in filling the casing.

My artificial casing is elastic circumferentially and will expand or contract uniformly with the swelling or. shrinking of the sausage meat both in 20 the process of making the sausage and in storage. This provides a product in which the meat will not separate or shrink away from the casing. The material can be easily cut with a knife or slicer, and when the sausage is sliced, the casing can 25 be readily peeled off. The casing will not become putrid, rancid or moldy, and is capable of being kept for an indefinite period of time without deterioration.

It has been found in practice that sausage meat 30 encased in my artificial casing will remain fresh and be preserved for a much longer time than, when contained in a natural gut casing. When used as a casing for liver sausage, it has been found to prevent the formation of so-called jelly 35 pockets. Furthermore, the material protects the meat and prevents the surface in contact with the inside of the casing from darkening. At present, liver sausages cased in hog bungs tend to darken quite readily. The fact that the 0 meat will not darken in my artificial casing is a surprising result and is probably due to the character ofthe structure of the casing as well as to the nature of the components of the material.

Casings made according to this invention are 5 hygienic, uniform in size and quality, and do not require any changes in the meat formulae, or in the processes or apparatus now used in sausage making, or in curing, smoking or otherwise preparing the sausage meat. The casing material 50 may be opaque and colored, as, for example, to simulate the color of a natural hog bung liver sausage casing, or it may be translucent to permit the color of the meat to show through.

In one mannerof carrying out my invention, I 55 prepare a compound of latex or of suitable rubber dispersion, formed either with natural or synthetic rubber, and then apply a coating of the compound upon a base of stretchable fabric, preferably a knitted fabric made of viscose rayon or the like. The coating is then dried, or coagulated and dried, vulcanized, and treated, as by immersion in boiling water, to produce small pores or micropores in the coating material. The resultant product comprises a stretchable fabric base to which is firmly and integrally united a coating of microporous elastic vulcanized rubber. While for use in making larger size casings, such as liver sausage or bologna casings, I prefer to afiix the coating to a fabric base, I do not necessarily limit the invention to a casing having a fabric base because smaller sized casings, where increased strength and controlled elasticity are not essential factors, may be made of the microporous vulcanized latex compound alone without the base. 7

One embodiment of the invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawing, wherein:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a cut length of sausage; and i Fig. 2 is a cross section, on an enlarged scale, taken on the line 2--2 of Figure 1.

Referring to the drawing, the casing therein shown comprises an inner fabric layer or base In having a coating II on its outer surface of latex or suitable rubber compound. In the particular form illustrated, which is a larger casing such as used on liver sausages, the casing has a longitudinal seam I2 united by stitching I3.

I n forming the casing, the material is stitched with the coated surface on the inside, and then turned inside out to form a tube. A seamed casing simulates the appearance of a certain type of hog bung casing, known as the export type", which latter is usually sewed. However, if desired, the casing may be made seamless by first forming a tube of the fabric, on a mandrel or otherwise, and then coating the tube with the latex compound. The ends of the casing may be tied, sewed, or closed in any manner.

The fabric employed as the base is preferably a knitted fabric made of yarns or threads of artificial silk, natural silk, cotton, or other fibre. The fabric is knitted to afford considerable elasticity in one direction, generally in a direction crosswise of the web or sheet. In making the casing, the fabric is used so that its maximum stretch will occur circumferentially of the easing. While I have found that a knitted fabric of viscose rayon is particularly suitable for use in making the casing, other fabrics made of other materials may be used provided that the fabric is of such character as to have the desired circumferential elasticity when formed into a tube.

The latex compound or rubber dispersion used for impregnating and coating the fabric may be made in known manner. Vulcanizers, accelerators and antioxidants, such as are usually employed in making rubber compounds, are added to the mixture and are intimately incorporated with the latex or dispersed rubber. Ultra accelerators of the type of butyl zimate are preferred because they will facilitate rapid vulcanization at comparatively low temperatures. When synthetic rubber-like substances are used which do not require vulcanization, vulcanizers and accelerators may be omitted. Any non-toxic fillers, pigments, or dyes, such, for example, as clay, whiting, kaolin, titanium oxide, insoluble vat dyes, or the like, may be added.

The latex used in making the coating compound is preferably one having a high concentration of rubber solids, that is, one prepared by evaporating the fresh latex to high concentration of weight Rubber (in the form of concentrated latex containing about 70% rubber) Sulphur .75 to 1 Antioxidant .75 to 1 Accelerator .75 to 1 Gum karaya or methyl cellulose .75 to 3 Kaolin 1 to 8 Titanium oxide .5 to 1 The ingredients above mentioned are introduced into the stabilized latex as colloidal aqueous dispersions. The gum karaya, or the methyl cellulose, as the case may be, is used toincrease the viscosity of the concentrated latex solution and to aid in inducing porosity in the vulcanized coating. Gelatin, casein, water soluble starch, or other water soluble gums may be substituted. The kaolin and the titanium oxide give the compound the desired color simulating that of a hog bung liver sausage casing. If a translucent material is desired, these ingredients may be omitted or used only in very small amounts.

The latex coating compound may be applied to one or both surfaces of the fabric. Preferably, I first apply a thin layer which will impregnate the fabric and then additional layers are applied to build up a fabric of desired thickness. The several layers may be dried, or coagulated and dried, separately or together. Coagulation may be effected by any suitable coagulant, such as, for example, acetic acid. I

Curing or vulcanization of the dried latex coating may conveniently be done in one or more stages.

Parts by In one method the dried latex coatingv may be heated for a sufficient length of time and at a sufliciently high temperature in order to complete the vulcanization in one step; or by another method by heating for a sufficient length of time at a sufficiently high temperature in order to partially vulcanize the coating; and then by immersion in or treatment with boiling water .or aqueous solutions to complete the vulcanization. However, irrespective of which method is followed, the final treatment of washing with hot water or suitable aqueous solutions will be necessary in order to remove all of the soluble bodies consisting of those originally present in the latex; those introduced into the dispersion; and those formed'during coagulation. This treatment produces a vulcanized rubber film or coating having minute pores formed by washing out the soluble particles.

While I prefer to employ the latex compound as a coating for a fabric, it may, 'as heretofore stated, he used to make a mlcroporous film which may be used with or without a fabric base, or

which may be subsequently attached to a fabric base either before or after the film has been completely vulcanized and made porous.

It has been found that 'a material produced in this manner has many of the desirable characteristics, ofnatural gut, especially that of porosity. When used as a casing or container for meat products, it has the advantages over the natural gut of producing a container which is extremely sanitary, which has great strength, and when attached to a suitable knitted base is elastic within definite limits. The stretchability or elasticity of the casing may be varied depending upon the degree of vulcanization of the rubber compound, the kind of fabric used as the base, and whether the casing is stuffed in wet or dry condition.

For use as a sausage casing, the material is formed into a tube of suitable diameter, either seamed or seamless. The tube, prior to stuffing, is substantially smaller in diameter than when stufied with the sausage meat, the circumferential elasticity of the material permitting of this expansion.

What I claim is:

l. A method of making a sausage casing comprising the steps of coating a sheet of knitted fabric which is relatively stretchable in one direction with a rubber dispersion in which small amounts of compatible soluble bodies are uniformly distributed, coagulating and drying the coating, vulcanizing the coated fabric, treating with a solvent which does not affect the fabric or rubber but which dissolves the soluble particles to produce small pores in the rubber coating, and forming the coated fabric into a tube in which the relatively stretchable direction of the fabric is arranged circumferentially of the tube.

2. A method of making a sausage casing comprising the steps of coating a sheet of knitted fabric which is relatively stretchable in one direction with a rubber dispersion in which small amounts of compatible soluble bodies are uniformly distributed, coagulating and drying the coating, vulcanizing the coated fabric, treating with boiling water to wash out the water soluble particles to produce small pores in the rubber coating, and forming the coated fabric into a tube in which the relatively stretchable direction of the fabric is arranged circumferentially of the tube.

3. A method of making a sausage casing comprising the steps of coating 2. sheet of fabric which is relatively stretchable in one direction with a rubber-like dispersion in which small amounts of compatible soluble bodies are unlformly distributed, drying the coating, vulcanizing the coated fabric, treating with a solvent which does not affect the fabric or rubber-like substance but which dissolves the soluble particles to produce small pores in the rubber-like coating, forming the coated fabric into a tube in which the relatively stretchable direction of the fabric is arranged circumferentially of the tube.

4. A method of making a sausage casing comprising the steps of coating a sheet of fabric which is relatively stretchable in one direction with a rubber-like. dispersion in which small amounts of compatible soluble bodies are uniformly distributed, drying the coating, vulcanizing the coated fabric, treating with water to wash out the water soluble particles to produce small pores in the rubber-like coating, and forming the coated fabric, into a tube in which the relatively stretchable direction of the fabric is arranged circumferentially'of the tube.

5. A method of making a sausage casing comprising the steps of coating a sheet of fabric which is relatively stretchable in one direction with a rubber dispersion in which small amounts of compatible soluble bodies'are uniformly distributed, coagulating and drying the coating, vulcanizing the coated fabric, treating with hot water to wash out the water soluble particles to produce small pores in the rubber coating, and forming the coated fabric into a tube in which the relatively stretchable direction of the fabric is arranged circumferentially of the tube.

LEO A. GOODMAN. 

